Reading Recovery Links
PLNP Faculty/Staff in Reading Recovery
The Indiana Reading Recovery Program completed its twelfth year of operation (1993-2005) at Purdue University. Implementation has grown significantly since the first year when 21 teachers who were in training served only 221 children. Since 1993, over 1,200 teachers and 46 teacher leaders have been trained and 24 training sites have been established. During the 2004-2005 academic year, Reading Recovery was operating in 142 school corporations and 424 schools. During the twelve years, nearly 50,000 children have received the early intervention program. Of those who received a full program of instruction, 80% percent of them accelerated their literacy progress and reached the average level of their peers. Moreover, at the end of each year, as a group, these children were performing well within an average band of a randomly selected sample of non-Reading Recovery children in the state. Replication methodology has been used by the National Data Evaluation Center at The Ohio State University to document similar results with 1,500,000 children nationwide since 1984, demonstrating scientifically based research evidence of the program’s effectiveness.
In addition, a statewide follow-up study of the majority of approximately 300 former Reading Recovery children in grades 2, 3, and 4 were found to be still functioning within an average range of a random sample of approximately 300 their classmates on text reading level, standardized tests of reading comprehension and vocabulary, and strategy awareness (Schmitt & Gregory, 2005). Such success contributes to the notion of cost-benefit since those children are likely not to require costly additional services since their failures were prevented by an early intervention.
The Indiana General Assembly passed legislation in 1996 that provided $4 million per year in funding for early literacy intervention programs such as Reading Recovery. Since then, significant Early Intervention Grant funding has been awarded by the Indiana Department of Education from this source for the training and continued professional development of teachers and teacher leaders statewide. The Indiana Education Policy Center at Indiana University was commissioned to study the impact of early intervention funding and found that there were fewer first grade retentions and referrals to special education in buildings with Reading Recovery.
Schmitt, M.C. & Gregory, A.E. (2005). The impact of an early literacy intervention: Where are the children now? Literacy Teaching and Learning: An International Journal of Early Reading and Writing, 10 (1), 1-20.